Madonna is set to soon be named the official adoptive parent of David Banda, after the Malawian government recommended the High Court formally approve the process.
An official has deemed the singer a suitable mother, after visiting the London home Madonna shares with husband Guy Ritchie and children Lourdes and Rocco.

It was decided it would be “in the best interests” of David, two, to stay with the couple.

The ‘4 Minutes’ singer caused controversy when she brought then one-year-old David home from the African country in October 2006.

Critics claimed she had been given preferential treatment because of her star status despite Malawian laws which prevent non-citizens from adopting.

Madonna’s lawyers have requested her court appearance should be delayed from next week until the end of April because she has prior engagements in the US.

A court official said: “They have made that application at the High Court, and the judge is expected to respond soon.”

Random Madonna Video from YouTube

Imagine digital music without Apple as the marquee act.

That’s what the music labels want. For years, they have wished for a legitimate challenger to wrest away some of the bargaining power Apple has wielded as the No. 1 online music seller. So, here we go again: it’s another iTunes killer.

On Thursday, MySpace executives unwrapped MySpace Music. Backed by the four largest record companies and MySpace parent company News Corp., the music service will offer much of what iTunes does and more, according to MySpace’s managers. But haven’t we heard this before?

Urge, Sony’s Connect, and SpiralFrog are only a few of the services once predicted to unseat iTunes. Of this group, only the troubled SpiralFrog continues to limp along. The other two no longer exist.

MySpace is up against music retail’s supreme power in Apple’s iTunes. The new service must compete with not only one of the most successful consumer-electronics makers of all time, it must do battle with arguably one of world’s greatest marketers and retailers in Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Apple has dominated Internet music sales the past six years and now iTunes can call itself the country’s largest music retailer–online or off–after besting Wal-Mart in sales during the first two months of 2008.

Apple’s iTunes has had years to establish a large and loyal following and to develop systems that make shopping at the site simple and easy. And you can’t underestimate the power of having iPod owners already plugged into iTunes.

Besides music, Apple has forged relationships with movie studios and TV networks that enable iPod owners to watch feature films and TV shows on their devices. But even though Apple has a head start with iTunes, the service will have to keep up with the industry’s rapid changes.

“MySpace Music is not a serious threat for at least two or three years,” said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Apple’s iTunes succeeds because of its connection to an amazingly popular device. As long as the iPod is central to their music strategy, they will continue to be a force. But the question is whether iTunes can adapt to Music 2.0.”

The next stage in the music industry’s evolution will be an all encompassing model that melds social networking, e-commerce, and music discovery.

MySpace Music is unlike any iTunes challenger that has come before. An audience of 110 million people from all over the world visit MySpace every month. About 30 million listen to music on the site, and more than 5 million music acts rely on the site for promotion.

So influential has MySpace become in the music world that last year when EMI was preparing budget cuts, it considered a plan to reduce expenses for discovering new artists by getting talent scouts to spend less time in music clubs and more on MySpace.

Nothing has done more to expose Apple to competition than the death of digital rights management. Although Jobs called for the end of DRM, there’s no question that it provided iTunes with protection from competitors. With the major record companies adopting unprotected MP3s, iPod owners are free to buy songs from any music store selling DRM-free songs. Music fans are no longer locked into iTunes.

“Apple’s advantage lies in the Apple iPod connecting to iTunes,” said Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with research firm IDC. “But that advantage is being dissolved by MP3s that are compatible with more and more online music services. And the social networks have the opportunity to offer new dimensions to the online-buying experience. Not only can they offer information on specific bands, but they also have the ability to easily connect users to each other and share taste-making information.”

MySpace’s intent is to create a total immersive music experience, the digital equivalent of walking into a large record store, one that features listening posts, CDs, DVDs, vinyl albums, and in-store concerts, according to McQuivey.

“What MySpace Music does is establish a new level of expectation about what music could be in people’s lives,” McQuivey said. “Apple might find itself following for the first time.”

But here is what MySpace should do if it seriously intends to challenge iTunes.

MySpace has to build a site that’s as easy to navigate and buy music from as iTunes. That’s not an easy feat. Plenty of others have failed at this, and one of the main criticisms of MySpace is that the site is cluttered and difficult to move around on.

It also needs to undercut Apple on price. That’s what Amazon did. The Web’s biggest store offers most songs for 79 cents, while Apple sells them for 99 cents. The company has yet to report how the strategy has worked, but nothing speaks to consumers like a bargain.

Apple offers movies and TV shows, so MySpace should cut similar deals with Hollywood. Why stop at music? If you’re going to compete with iTunes, you must have at minimum everything Apple offers. That also means signing EMI, the only label among the four majors not to join the venture.

Even Apple fans should want MySpace to challenge Apple. Jobs and company have always been at their sharpest when pushed.

Rock on, MySpace.

Fergie won’t have children before she gets married.

The Black Eyed Peas star - who was rumoured to be expecting her first child with fiancé Josh Duhamel after sporting an unusually large tummy when she left a sushi restaurant last week - wants to enjoy being engaged before she thinks about starting a family.

She said: “I’ve never been pregnant and this is probably the 20th time people have said that. So, no, for the record!

“All I know is that I want to be married before I get pregnant. You’re only a fiancée for a short amount of time and you want to enjoy that moment so we’re just living in the now and enjoying that.”

Fergie - who met Josh when the Black Eyed Peas appeared on his US TV show ‘Las Vegas’ in 2004 - also revealed excess weight is more obvious on her body because she is so short.

She added to US TV show ‘Extra’: “I’m 5ft 4in and so when I gain a few extra pounds, it shows. I think people just love to speculate!”

XX Teens are playing a free gig at the Amersham Arms, New Cross on Monday 31st March.

Doors are at 7.30pm so do come along! This gig is ahead of recently-announced tour with The Long Blondes, which kicks off on the 6th April.

XX Teens has recently finished their debut album, Welcome To Goon Island, with Ross Orton (Fat Truckers, MIA, Bromheads Jacket, Kid Acne) in Sheffield. The album, a beguiling and innovative record in the great art school tradition, will be released through Mute in July 2008.

The band will also be releasing a single in May. This follows the release earlier this year of the single How To Reduce The Chances Of Being A Terror Victim and Darlin’ which came out in 2007 and made it into the NME’s singles of the year chart in December ’07.

Sugababes star Amelle Berrabah was on the verge of a nervous breakdown after her boyfriend was accused of raping her sister.
The 23-year-old singer suffered panic attacks and lived “like a hermit” after being forced to choose sides between her sister Samiya and boyfriend Freddie Fuller.

She told Britain’s The Sun newspaper: “I feel like I have had a nervous breakdown. Sometimes I’d have panic attacks. I physically and mentally couldn’t handle it. Being a Sugababe is the thing I’ve always wanted and I felt my own sister was trying to screw it up for me.

“I thought, ‘My boyfriend has raped my sister’ and ‘is the person I’ve loved this whole, entire time lying to me and is a sick weirdo?’ ”

Freddie’s rape charges were later dropped after it was proved he was five miles away on the phone to Amelle when the alleged incident took place in January 2007.

Despite being cleared last October, Freddie has been verbally abused in the street and says he will never forgive Samiya.

Freddie, whose three cousins were also accused of the rape, said: “It nearly killed me. Amelle and me split up for about three months. I’ve never been so down in my life.

“Then Samiya said, ‘I’m really sorry I think I had a bad dream.’ People look at me like I’m a piece of s**t now. I want people to know the truth. I never want to set eyes on her again.”

Amelle says her life is slowly getting back to normal but she is still torn between her family and her lover.

She added: “She was like my best mate, we’d do everything together. I feel I’ve lost a piece of me.

“People need to know Freddie is completely innocent. We’re emotionally drained and physically drained. We can’t mentally take it anymore.”